‘Idol’ dominates Wednesday

Steady Fox show rolls; NBC comedies wrap modestly

Fox’s ”American Idol,” defying a trend that saw other reality shows show decline this week, held steady Wednesday and beat the combined demo deliveries of the other major networks on a night that included repeats of comedies on ABC and dramas on CBS.

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, Fox rolled from 8 to 10 p.m. with a two-hour edition of ”American Idol” (5.0/14 in 18-49, 17.2 million viewers overall), in line with last week and expected to rank as the week’s No. 1 program in 18-49 for a third straight week. Head-to-head, ”Idol” beat CBS’ ”Survivor” (2.8/9 in 18-49, 9.6 million viewers overall), its closest pursuer on the night, by 71% in 18-49 (4.8 vs. 2.8) and by 60% in 25-54 (6.1 vs. 3.8).

Elsewhere, CBS followed ”Survivor” with repeats of ”Criminal Minds” (1.7/4 in 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall) and ”CSI” (1.7/5 in 18-49, 7.8 million viewers overall). And ABC went with repeats of ”The Middle” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 4.3 million viewers overall), ”Suburgatory” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall) and ”Modern Family” (1.9/5 in 18-49, 5.3 million viewers overall) followed by a repeat ”Happy Endings” (1.9/5 in 18-49, 4.2 million viewers overall) and a special encore of new Thursday drama ”Missing” (0.9/2 in 18-49, 4.1 million viewers overall).

NBC had another wobbly Wednesday with the finales of ”Whitney” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 4.2 million viewers overall) and ”Are You There, Chelsea?” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 3.1 million viewers overall); the fate of both shows for next season is up in the air. They were followed by two more original episodes of new comedy ”Bent” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 2.6 million viewers overall at 9 p.m. and 0.8/2 in 18-49, 2.4 million viewers overall) and newsmag ”Rock Center” at 10 (0.8/2 in 18-49, 3.3 million viewers overall).

At CW, the penultimate episode of ”One Tree Hill” was down week to week (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.3 million viewers overall), but ”America’s Next Top Model” edged up to its best scores for the current edition (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.3 million viewers overall).

Univision placed ahead of both ABC and NBC on the night in adults 18-49, with all three of its novellas ranking among Wednesday’s top 10 shows in the demo.